Issue: Criminal Accountability of UN Officials on mission
Position: Head Chair/Co-Chair
Introduction
The criminal accountability of the UN Officials on mission is one of the legal issues, which has been debated through the Legal Committee for numerous years. The legal gaps make it difficult for the UN to hold personnel accountable for crimes committed in the missions under its jurisdiction. The UN personnel are being currently accountable only to their countries and their legislation or being protected by the international legal statute of immunity. The lack of accountability makes the whole organization less credible and reliable. With two different groups of UN personnel the troop contributing countries have a legal responsibility over military personnel and are in case of the misconduct sent back to the country of origin.
So far 71 UN peacekeeping operations were conducted since the year 1948 and current peacekeeping is ongoing in 16 current operations in which 124 different countries are contributing the personnel. The UN is being present in different continents and numerous countries with the majority of the personnel and hence 95% working on a protection of civilian mandate. The criminal accountability issue is causing the negative image on the whole principles, goals and values of the organization (United Nations, n. p.). The current status of the legal issue is still being negotiated and so far numerous attempts to improve the issue were ineffective.
Definition of Key Terms
Immunity: Defined by the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations in the articles, IV, V and VI as “immunity from personal arrest or detention and from seizure of their personal baggage, // and “immunity from legal process of every kind” (Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, Article IV)
Criminal act: crime is defined by the Oxford dictionary (n. p.) as an action which constitutes an offense which is punishable by law. It is wrong, shameful and evil action.
Criminal accountability: With no direct definition of criminal accountability the definition of accountability must be first considered. Based on the Oxford Dictionary (n. p.) the accountability means responsibility and being accounted and answerable for the actions in this case for criminal actions.
UN Officials: are individuals from different countries who held an office position or different position in the UN system. UN experts and officials in the paper are regarded as individuals who are working under the UN.
The efforts to address the issue by the UN is focused on different reports, oversight and reforms. The UN Conduct and Discipline is served in all UN operations, with improved investigations of offences. The UN established of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, and developed internal systems of administrative justice and ability to blacklist individuals with past records of serious misconduct. Different steps were taken to improve the state’s laws to prosecute nationals who are serving in the UN missions, but the actions taken have not diminished the issue since they are not punishable as well as not the right deterrent factor. However, the reported cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers are based on the Andrews et al (1-20) constant at 100 per year.
Based on the United States Institute of Peace (Ferstman, 2) numerous abuses committed by the UN personnel in only peacekeeping operations, which are only one of the operations under the UN flag, such as rape, pedophilia, prostitution, sexual exploitation and others were reported in different countries from Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Eritrea, Kosovo, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Somalia. The personnel today benefits from near-total impunity. What is more, the number of allegations in different UN missions shows the rate of related criminal prosecutions which is negligible, despite the personnel contributing countries are being obliged to report to the UN the outcome and progress of such prosecutions and investigations. The accusations have been present from the year 1990 onward (Ferstman, 2-5).
The current actions taken by different countries are diplomatic in nature which is creating moral and ethical standards, but much needs to be done if the impunity and the number of reported and possible criminal acts under the UN missions are going to be reduced. Causes of the issue lie in the sole framework on the UN mission and accountability of the participants as well as in the fact of security and political situation of the countries in which UN troops are deployed since the primary UN documents did not envision the UN work in such circumstances. The causes and impacts of the issue are already mentioned, such as further degradation of credibility of the organization, its values and goals as well as continuation of impunity and non-transparency.
Major Parties Involved
European Union (EU)
The issue is a concern of various different organizations, from state and non-state actors, but the ones who can act are countries themselves that is why the major parties involved are all global countries which citizens participate in the UN missions. EU along with the countries of the former Yugoslav Republic are supporting zero tolerance towards the crimes committed by UN officials and experts on missions, which include sexual exploitation, abuse, corruption, and fraud among many other crimes. Europe is going to work hard to prevent the impunity of such actions. They recognize the primary responsibility of member states to prosecute the perpetrators and that is why greater cooperation between the state under the UN is needed. The EU is ready to consider the proposal of a comprehensive international legal framework which could clarify under which circumstance UN member states can exercise jurisdiction and to determine the categories of individual crimes. EU supports the International Criminal Court in criminal actions committed when the national authorities fail to exercise their jurisdiction (EU statement, n. p.).
North America
North America has numerous times expressed concerns over the credibility of UN peacekeeping operations. Based on the official US statement, the states and countries are responsible to implement the criminal accountability, not the UN. The US has even questioned the usefulness of annual resolutions on criminal accountability since they are incapable of closing legal gaps which exist in the area. Canada position is supporting the rule of law, security and development of human rights. They believe the failure to bring the criminals to answer for committed crimes is hurting the UN reputation, integrity and credibility (Meeting Coverage, n. p.). Along with the official statements the known perception of the international Criminal Court views of North America should also be considered.
African Union (AU)
AU is in support of zero tolerance policy and believes the perpetrators of violence against women should be held responsible. The impunity should be ended. They believe that in case of perpetrators of UN officials and experts in peacekeeping missions the mandating authority and hence UN should exercise accountability and justice rather than the African troop contributing countries – TCC (African Union,14).
Timeline
Evaluation of Previous UN Involvement
The UN has been involved in the issue resolving since the first allegation of criminal acts reported in the early nineties. The UN has so far accepted various different resolutions as well as formed different committees and groups which work on the issue. They have established the overall framework in which enhanced cooperation among the countries as well as sharing of information can take place. They have introduced the high standards and code of behavior on the missions as well as promote the common values and expectations of the participants. They have taken the practical measures to diminish the issue such as strengthening the training, educating on the standards of conduct also in the pre-deployment and in-mission induction trainings. The UN has also accepted numerous legal but non-binding documents such as resolutions and meetings to resolve the impunity and criminal actions under the UN missions. The purpose of those actions is straight which is to have zero tolerance towards impunity and lack of accountability and they posed moral standards on the participating member states. However, since there is no punishment and no enforcing actions behind the actions taken by the UN the cases of impunity still appear and UN personnel is still not hold accountable for their actions. The insufficient action can be seen from the statistical data about the number of reported crimes compared to the rulings of member states which are still not happening in all cases on which the misconducts have been reported. The actions taken have created a moral and ethical precedence, but no a legal one, which can result in further continuation of the issue.
Possible Solution
The solution is to take legal and binding measures to reduce the impunity and accountability of the UN officials and experts on UN missions.
Useful links for further research
United Nations Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. 1946. Available at:
The convention is showing the current state of UN officials regarding the accountability in the UN missions and the jurisdiction over possible offences.
United Nations Resolution 69/459. 2014. Available at: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/69/495
The resolution Criminal accountability of UN officials and experts on missions is encouraging the participation states in Un missions to improve the accountability and transparency.
Legal Committee. Available at: http://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/index.shtml
The web page can show current and past efforts to change the legal issue of non-accountability.
UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Available at: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
The web page of the department can show the current peacekeeping operations along with the current issues, which include, among others, also the facts of the contributing states in different past and current peacekeeping missions, operations and actions as well as code of conduct.
United Nations Conduct and Discipline Unit. Available at: https://cdu.unlb.org
The web page addresses the Conduct and Discipline Unit, the major values, such as integrity, professionalism, dignity and courtesy which should be respected by the UN officials and with it the UN standards and polices.
Office of Internal Oversight Services. Available at: https://oios.un.org
The office is the body which is responsible for the internal oversight and promotes accountability and transparency.
General Assembly of the United Nations. Available at: http://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/69/criminal_accountability.shtml
The web page can give an oversight of the past and current sessions in the area of criminal accountability of UN officials and experts on mission.
Bibliography
African Union. Common African Position on the Un Review of Peace Operations, 2015,
Available at: http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/cap_peaceops_2015.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
Andrews, N. Katherine, Durch, J. William, England, L. Madeline, Weed, C. Matthew.
Improving Criminal Accountability in United Nations Peace Operations, 2009, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/102719/Improving_Criminal_Accountability_June2009.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946,
http://www.un.org/en/ethics/pdf/convention.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
EU statement. EU statement – Un 6th Committee: Criminal Accountability of UN
officials and Experts on Mission, 2015, http://eu-un.europa.eu/eu-statement-united-nations-6th-committee-criminal-accountability-un-officials-experts-mission/. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
Ferstman, Carla. Criminalizing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Peacekeepers. United
States Institute of Peace, 2013, http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR335-Criminalizing%20Sexual%20Exploitation%20and%20Abuse%20by%20Peacekeepers.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
Meeting Coverage. General Assembly Sixth Committee, 2015,
https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/gal3500.doc.htm. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
Oxford Dictionary. Crime. Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/crime
Oxford Dictionary. Accountability,
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/accountability. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
United Nations. Peacekeeping Fact Sheet, 2016,
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/factsheet.shtml. Accessed 2 Feb 2017.
